Top Percent
by Daenion Seven
Summary: A singular opportunity presents itself to a Pokémon Ranger cadet: To become a temporary Trainer, join the Pokémon League challenge, and complete it in a set amount of time. All if he wishes to make and keep a career as a professional Battler, on top of the one he currently has.
1. Chapter 0,1: One Silent Night

**Chapter 0.1: "One Silent Night"**

* * *

It was peacefully quiet outside.

The night glowed low, the sea was calm, and the sky was clear as one could see.

Such peace seemed to permeate the air inside, as well. The laziness hung so dense. So heavy – one could drift to sleep with ever just a sigh.

So entirely true, it was; as more than half the passengers in the flight were no longer awake. And those who were, time slowly dwindled them away.

…

An hour had come to pass – and only a seventh of them remained. Those would be tonight´s all-nighters.

Or at least, some of them.

To the left, in a seat; a late youth tiredly leaned his head to the wall, and looked at his reflection in the window. But with such lack of lighting, he should had known that there was none to begin with.

He closed his eyes. And deep wrinkles appeared.

He was sleep deprived.

His mind, body, and consciousness were nearing stupor. And yet, his emotions were in such turmoil that he could still not call it a day.

Perhaps, he should have thanked his own luck for getting a window seat. And a wall to lean on, too. Or else, he might not have had comfort enough to rest for the night, at all.

Not to mention that no one snored in his vicinity, either. But that was beside the point.

…

This… dream of his. …Its end goal was way too high. Way too impossible for someone like him.

Being honest with himself, it amazed him to be able to reach this far. And he was barely on his way to start it.

And the reason he was able to take this trip?

Luck.

Simple, untapped luck. With a lot of self-effort and family support, too. But most notably, luck.

Such was the way he thought things had gone: It still felt unearned.

Maybe that was the reason why he kept clutching this device in his palm.

He loosened his grip to it. And with a soft sigh, looked at it once more.

It was a Poké Ball.

A Great Ball, to be precise.

A round, smooth-surfaced Great Ball, with now signs of grime from the sweat his hands had made for holding it for so long.

He would have used cloth and a solution to clean it up. But the latter was rather deep within the backpack between his legs, down his seat. And looking at the other passengers in the row, …he could not bear the thought of waking someone up for something like that.

Still, he opted for cleaning it as much as he could with cloth alone.

Pulling out a small, flat case from a pocket of his jacket; he took out a fine napkin from within, and proceeded to give small maintenance to it.

Overtime, the grime was slowly fading away. However, that meant it was only spreading around, instead of being removed. And so, an additional cleaning was going to be required.

It should also be mentioned that the cloth would need a cleaning of its own, later. But that, was also beside the point.

As he gently rubbed, he couldn´t help but get his mind in a sour, tense mood.

This was new to him.

All of it.

Taking slow, deep breaths, he did his best to clear his mind again. He had been thinking about this too much. And his time to rest has been long overdue.

This wasn´t like him. He was simply nervous – that´s all.

Yes. He was simply just nervous.

…

With the Poké Ball cleaned, he slowly opened the backpack just enough to push said item inside, before zipping it close.

With nothing else to do, the leaned to the wall once more, and shut his eyes.

Perhaps, everything will turn out just fine. He did plan this out, after all.

Perhaps… he was worrying too much. …And all that stress was for nothing.

Perhaps….

…

…

…

Up in the air, an airplane kept its flight. It kept its journey – smooth and gentle towards its destination.

For those in there, the night kept glowing low; the sea kept its flow; while a new passenger found his way to sleep.

* * *

 _Published: 25/10/2018_


	2. Chapter 1,1: Setout: UNPTI

**Chapter 1.1: "Setout: UNPTI"**

* * *

 _Battle Mechanics: PP Usage: PP is shared across all moves._

 _Battle Mechanics: Move Usage: Pokémon can use any Move available so long as it´s learning condition has been met._

* * *

./ Welcome to the 31st Unova Newcomer Pokémon Trainer´s Invitational: A contest for budding Trainers to show their talents, and earn one of our placements as the next generation of our Pokémon League´s rookie Battlers.

./ (…) It is only required to send your Security-1 Trainer Card Data with a minimum of one (1) month ago as its latest update. (…) Later on, an e-mail will be sent to the address it is bound to, which will tell whether or not your application has been accepted for participation.

./ (…)

./ (…) Those whose applications resulted positive will be allowed entrance into a pre-reserved lobby on each of our meeting points in Unova. Which will be the following: (…).

./ (…) Participants will be waited for, from (…) until (…) between (…) hours.

./ Those who do not manage to register in said meeting points in time, will not be accepted. Although a second waiting group will remain for three (3) more days, to offer repatriation.

./ (…)

./ Once waiting hours are over, participants will be moved to local hotels, where they will reside until registering days are over. Said hotels will be: (…).

./ After registration is over, participants will be moved to (…); where the program will officially start.

./ The cost to participate (…).

./ (…)

./ (…)

./ (…)

./ (…)

…

Such was the read the official headline provided. It was a program that he decided sign in for, once more, giving himself another attempt to try his luck.

Being one out of countless applications received by the program; he knew fully well that the probability of passing through the filtering algorithm that sorted such massive numbers was smaller than he will ever comprehend.

This was a notion that every aspirant was aware of.

For them, the chances being accepted – let alone _succeeding_ – was, as they would say in pained laughter, "just too much of a wish-shattering b*tch slap". As many of them keep uploading their ID´s to every invitational; for every region, every year; yet still remain rejected.

Sad and expected – such misfortunate let-downs were a common sight amongst this people.

The world was big, after all.

Big and unfair.

However, as they also say: "for every hundred thousandth tear of grief, there was always that one lucky bastard with a smile as dumb as the f*cker who made him born."

That was a saying of forgotten and unnecessary origin for him.

At the end of the day: he was currently that lucky, cheeky bastard.

A bastard whose overhype for being accepted made him suddenly scream at his computer screen before standing up, laugh aloud, spin around, jump about….

He could have sworn he may had thrown a thing or two to the wall. He no longer knew.

But if there was something to be sure, it was that for a certain someone, this person currently had a face that begged to be punched a lot.

…Or pecked, for that matter.

.- "-Ha Ha Ha, Ah-Ow! Gah! Fu-! Hey! Tanner! Stop!" He shouted while wildly wailing his arms to the air, unable to catch a thing.

His perpetrator was a short, 0.4m Murkrow who kept pecking him while flying and hopping from every high spot available. Where many of the cases, its target´s head was also included.

.- "Hey! I got your point! Just stop! _Please_!"

With such a small critter darting across his entire room, pinching his head, arms, hands, and fingers, exasperation was quickly built and shown on him. A sudden sense of crampedness surged, too; his room was nor big or tall at all.

.: "Dohrk Caw!" (You´re alone. Come to me!).

But the Murkrow had none of that. This human had startled him awake with his burst of nonsense – and almost threatened to topple down its hard-gained treasure trove, to boot! Just who was the actual victim here?!

And so, this odd scene of a twenty-year-old and his pissed-off Murkrow kept on for a while.

At least until the latter became tired of it.

Jumping with its short legs and flying without wind was more of a chore than it was worth in the long run. That much it knew.

Instead, it chose to glide towards their only window, then peck it nonstop. Which its partner gladly opened to get the little devil out of his room.

…

…

…

Watching it fly away to the roof, he gave a long sigh, placed everything in his room back in order, and threw himself to his bed.

Soon afterwards, slightly irritated spots started to form on his skin where Tanner had pecked him. But there was no more or worse than that.

It had to be noted that as angry as it was, the Murkrow never aimed for his eyes, ears, jugular, or tongue. Nor pecked-and-thrashed, or clawed, or did anything of true injury. It did not even use a Technique.

Meanwhile, incapacitating such a pokémon could not be called a feat for him; theatrics aside.

Not that any of them would go that far. They were partners in each other´s eyes. And as dysfunctional as they may look, there was a reason they had yet to be separated.

…That did not make the pecks any less hurtful, though; but at least it helped him sober up. Should he really thank Tanner for that? His actions were really unbecoming back then….

A lucky person he was, indeed – as not a single soul was in the vicinity to make witness of such reputation-ruining behavior.

But that was a fact unknown to him. …Much to his dismay.

As fate happened to come, he was actually accepted into the program. His ID got through; and even in his station´s database, his name was also listed as available for Pokémon Trainer cross-profession into Unova.

Said name was Loa Monto. And he was a Pokémon Ranger.

…

…An _Area Ranger_. But a Ranger, nonetheless.

What made him stick out, however, was that he also graduated as a Ranger Mechanic. Something that he now considered both a blessing and a curse; as he worked in both profession´s fields, with little regards to him if manpower went seriously low.

The payment was nice – but those were times he´d still prefer to leave forgotten. He was thankfully dismissed earlier than usual; so he´ll enjoy the rest of the day by his own terms.

Stretching as much as he could in the bed, he made himself comfortable.

Chosen sleep was a rare luxury here.

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

But sleep did not come.

While lazing in his bed for an hour and a half was maybe just as good; a fraction of his excitement was still burning inside him, nagging to do something.

He also remembered that there had to be quite the paperwork and preparations needed to be sorted before he could go and attend the invitational. So, with a groan, he decided to put his motivation to use by standing up, changing into his uniform, exiting his room, and going outside the living quarters.

Loa was currently residing in the Ranger Base of Pueltown: The city where his actual home was also located.

There used to be only Ranger Depots; which used to be more than enough thanks to the local law-keeping. But as the city slowly expanded through the wilderness without stop, the Ranger Union had troubles making an immediate response; as they could not mobilize, organize, and host all the needed personnel.

Thus, a rushed base was built; and the crisis was slowed into a stop. But not without an aftermath of great shame to the Union.

Even though that was decades before he even became a Ranger Student; …it was still hard for him to believe that such fiasco came to happen here, of all regions.

…

Walking and being received to the entrance of the director´s office, he took a moment for the last-seconds´ tidy-ups, and steadied himself into proper formality.

Since this base was built in The Heart of Almia, it had to be said that the installations were really nicely made after being remodeled. And they now had many things to offer to Rangers, unrelated professionals, and city folk alike.

Such as Loa´s case: which was requesting for a cross-profession, and all the details that it entailed.

* * *

 _Game-Story Segregation: PP: Mentioned as "Pokémon Energy" (modified TCG term)._

 _Game-Story Segregation: Moves: Mentioned as "Pokémon Energy Movement Techniques" (PEMT), and any variations related (heavily modified early Japanese term)._

* * *

 _Published: 26/10/2018_

 _Chapter susceptible to grammar-correcting updates._


End file.
